Catching up on a few things in a short podcast. A few thoughts on the ruination of Halloween. Kudos to the Cardinals. Some good resources on the web.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Bill Kinnon at Achievable Ends has a wonderful post on the power of music in worship, and particularly its effect on human beings: The Power of Music in Church.

Could it be that, we don’t just resonate with music, we are, in fact, music. Our physical reaction to music (toes tapping, body swaying, hands clapping, people dancing) is just a function of how we’ve been constructed. Which would explain both the power of music in the church, and the reason there’s so much discussion and disagreement about it.

Bill takes this into all kinds of places, but the interesting aspect to me is how Bill sees the other side of the undeniable truth of the seeker emphasis on music to attract people. Music also shapes us as persons, and as Christians.

Check it out, and the comment thread as well.

The Tall Skinny Kiwi, Andrew Jones, gives the Westy Seminary “Emerging Church Forum” high marks for integrity, fairness and a constructive- dare I say it?- conversation. This post includes Scot Mcknight’s excellent paper on the Emerging Church presented to the WTS faculty. Events like this forum have been plentiful in the past year, but the quality of the events have varied enormously. When the audio from this event becomes available, take advantage of the presentations, pro and con.

I wish I could say I’m surprised that so many critics of Mark Driscoll have admitted to never listening to his preaching until they decided to hunt down his “bad language.” Some people posting long comments have never listened to a Driscoll sermon. Mars Hill Church is very generous with their audio, and anyone grabbing traffic off “Driscoll porfanity” google searches ought to listen to a few sermons and consider what they are going to be accountable for writing. Odeo has all of Mars Hill’s audio. Check out the current messages on Jesus.

Glenn Lucke has posted this page from the up and coming Biblical theologian, Bill Wilder. Wilder has great lectures on N.T. Wright (mandatory if you want a mature perspective but won’t be reading all the books,) and Wilder’s current series on Intro to the Bible, which is outstanding stuff for adults. Get these good things.

Every year since I first published this piece, someone has linked it and I get requests for it to reappear. It’s one of my favorite IM pieces, and is dedicated to all of those writers and artists who believe in the holy and wholesome use of the imagination.

Here’s a toast to Halloween, and all the Christians who have held on to it despite the flood of nonsense, lies and manipulation that no surrounds the topic.

Read: The Great Pumpkin Proposes A Toast.

Who cares where I found it, it’s sad to realize this needs to be said….several times.

Spurgeon is not, however, the final arbiter between orthodoxy and what some imagine to be “heresy.” Neither he, nor his preaching, is infallible. Preachers are the servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God – not the mysteries of Spurgeon….Your appeal to the authority of Spurgeon in the endless indictments you hand down upon servants of the same Lord Spurgeon served is misplaced, to say the least. If you believe Spurgeon is above criticism by other men, or that Spurgeon’s preaching is not liable to criticism or error, then your self-styled crusade against all those who don’t measure up to him makes perfect, if not regretful, sense…For my part, I will continue to thank God for men like Spurgeon, all the while remembering Paul’s words, “Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.” There is only one final court of appeal in the judging of men, and it is not Spurgeon’s. There is only One who deserves the place you seem to give Spurgeon, and that One is no man.

I love Spurgeon, but I don’t like Spurgeon as the way to judge other men. I don’t like exegetical preachers ignoring the fact that Spurgeon was topical. I don’t like the fact that Spurgeon did a lot of innovation in ministry that get’s winked at, while today’s innovators are criticized for selling out the Gospel.

Spurgeon’s quick wit and constant humor were considered by some to be highly inappropriate for a clergyman of his day, but his fans today won’t grant others the same right to use humor. (And I don’t just mean the Driscoll business. I mean the caricature of emerging preaching in general.)

Spurgeon was a cage phase Calvinist as a young man, but a generous one- maybe too much so in some opinions- as an older man. How many of today’s TRs would have Moody in their church?

Spurgeon’s lack of education may be providential, but that shouldn’t become a reason to list Spurgeon as anti-education. I like the fact that Spurgeon wasn’t a scholar, and he knew it. He quoted scholars and published reviews of helpful scholarly works. He knew what we owed to scholarly preparation, and what the dangers were as well.

Spurgeon loved the Puritans…and criticized them. He was a Calvinist who knew how to give invitations, tell stories, press the emotions….all things denounced today.

And he charged for tickets!

If the emerging cited Mclaren as a standard the way some reformed cite Spurgeon, it would come off as very unhealthy. Does it strike anyone else as odd that the reformed celebrate their heroes in a way that’s unlike any other group in Christianity except…..I won’t say it. It’s too crazy.

A good man. A great man. But give him his time and place, and give today’s young preachers THEIRS.

I received this book from Sovereign Grace Ministries, not as a review copy, but as a nice gift from a staff member there. This post isn’t a review, but an exploration of one idea in the book- accountability relationships- that I want to encourage.

Twice a week, I meet with a group of men to study, talk and pray together about our journey as Christians. We’ve been reading and discussing C. J. Mahaney’s excellent little book, Humility. (After Thanksgiving, we’re going to read John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life.)

Mahaney’s book is a simple, straightforward exhortation to value and pursue humility. Mahaney is that rare reformed writer with a light touch. His book is full of self-deprecating illustrations and devotional insights based on a Christ-centered/cross-centered focus on the Gospel. Mahaney is a blue-collar preacher, not a scholar, and he speaks with a pastor’s heart and insights. I recommend the book for any group looking for a study of the Christian life that majors on ground-level application. [Continue reading]

This Driscoll business.

The Internet Monk Radio Podcast is available as an iTunes download.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

UPDATE: Here’s an excellent essay from Lawrence Perrine on the nature of “proof” in poetry. You should read it if you are interested in literary interpretation.

I’m sure some of you want me to blog on nothing but TRs, post-evangelicalism and the latest attempt to say that Mark Driscoll is Sam Kinison (I’m not making that one up.) But I am a teacher, and I am wanting more and more to spend my life teaching. Meditating on the issues that teaching raises within my faith and with my students is a big part of my “Christian Humanism.” So here we go.

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

-William Carlos Williams, “The Red Wheelbarrow” [Continue reading]

Life with the iMonk is exciting. And if you believe that, I’ve got some land in Florida to sell you.

My wife has written an entertaining essay about her struggle to stay awake when I am anywhere in the vicinity. Those of you who are looking forward to the excitement of marriage may want to read this to see just how exciting marriage can be. Preachers….if you once wanted a large church, but now you’d just like a few people to stay awake through your sermon, then this post is for you.

Denise a great writer with a fine humorous touch. Enjoy.

Read: Eyes Wide Shut.

Some thoughts on different ways of doing evangelism, and watching the culture warriors squirm a bit.

Remember that the Internet Monk Radio Podcast is available on iTunes subscription.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I gave up reading the blogs and MySpaces of our students this year because they weren’t having a good effect on me. Without sounding arrogant, I’ve heard it all before, and the personal references to my school, my friends, my fellow teachers and my life’s mission weren’t giving me any motivations or insights that truly mattered. [Continue reading]

From time to time I like to do something on here for the parents in the audience. This post will require you to read a post at Clay’s blog, but it will be worth it to read Denise’s excellent response.

Clay Spencer has written a post recalling one of the most painful episodes of his life: the death of his dream of playing soccer. It’s a fine post, but particularly interesting to me because of my own memories of the same events. Read Clay’s post, then come back and read some thoughts from Denise and me that we hope will be of help to parents working through this stage of life or similar issues. Now go read while I put on some coffee. (Here’s a non-Xanga version of Clay’s post for those of you who can’t get to Xanga.) [Continue reading]

This is a corrective for me most of all, so don’t write me and say “What about Capon and Wright blah blah blah?” I’m already there.

“For evangelical people, our authority is the God who has spoken supremely in Jesus Christ. And that is equally true of redemption or salvation. God has acted in and through Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners.

I think it’s necessary for evangelicals to add that what God has said in Christ and in the biblical witness to Christ, and what God has done in and through Christ, are both, to use the Greek word, hapax–meaning once and for all. There is a finality about God’s word in Christ, and there is a finality about God’s work in Christ. To imagine that we could add a word to his word, or add a work to his work, is extremely derogatory to the unique glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”- John Stott [Continue reading]

I’ve been reluctant to post any of my 18 year old son’s writing here at IM, but clearly, now is the time. If this piece doesn’t belong here, nothing does.

Clay has a number of literary gifts. He’s working to improve them, but what impresses me is that he writes life, and he finds Jesus in life. These days he’s finding life in the (flawed) family of Jesus followers and on the UK campus.

I believe my son is going to be the writer I wanted to be. This piece on a “street preacher” he encountered on campus reminds me that Jesus is still being mocked and spit upon all the time. If we love Jesus, we’ll know Jesus when we see him on the street or elsewhere. He will probably upset us, leave us mad at the world and ourselves, and refuse the easy answers and categories.

I think Clay knows the Jesus I want to know.

Read: Which does Jesus Find Funnier: You or Me Laughing At You?

Clay’s poetry is published at EthosHQ.

I frequently receive inquiries from readers wanting to know where to start reading N.T. Wright. I have a standard list that includes Simply Christian, The Everyone Commentaries and The Challenge of Jesus.

Now I have a new recommendation: Judas and the Gospel of Jesus is Wright’s smallest book yet, but is his most direct and one of his most readable. In many respects, this book is an extended “question and answer” to the subject “What are the implications of the gnostic Gospels for our knowledge of Jesus?” Wright is the leading figure in the “Third Quest for the Historical Jesus” and is a historian with a skill in speaking about difficult material to ordinary people. This book shows Wright at his best in answering a specific contemporary challenge to the traditional creedal view of Jesus. [Continue reading]

My parents were always poor. They came from poor people. They lived through the depression. The first house I remember was small, run down and drafty. Dad never was able to stay with a good job for very long, then his health broke down and he was disabled. He worked nickle and dime jobs, but never made any money. [Continue reading]